The White House said China is now facing up to a 245 percent tariff on imports to the U.S. “as a result of its retaliatory actions,” another escalation in a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
The top potential tariff is higher than the previously stated 145 percent and was referenced in a fact sheet published by the White House late on Tuesday.
It accompanied an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that launched an investigation into the “national security risks posed by U.S. reliance on imported processed critical minerals and their derivative products.”
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian was asked about the 245 percent rate at a press briefing on Wednesday. “You can ask the U.S. side for the specific tax rate figures,” Lin said, China News Network reported.
“This tariff war was initiated by the United States, and China’s necessary countermeasures are to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests and international fairness and justice, which are completely reasonable and lawful.”
Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff on imports from all countries. He has temporarily paused additional “reciprocal” rates set individually for each country depending on the trade barriers faced by the U.S. to allow time for negotiations on new deals.
The exception to that pause is China, which is facing increasingly higher tariffs from the U.S. and has responded in kind, among other countermeasures.
This week, China imposed more export controls on rare earths, which include materials used in high-tech products, aerospace manufacturing, and the defense sector.
Despite the eye-watering tariffs and tough rhetoric, both the U.S. and China have said they are open to talks on trade, though further tit-for-tat retaliation is likely in this conflict between two great powers.
Recall trump
It’s just wild to me continually seeing posts not understanding how this all works, and how it would play out. It’s like the people who thought China paid the tariffs…
The Constitution doesn’t provide a mechanism to recall the President, VP, a Senator or a Representative. Why do people think it’s easy to undo fuckwadary?
You can impeach him, but that would take the House and Senate to actually hold him accountable. The House needs to vote to do it.
The house is almost tied. That’s who passes bills, handles impeachments, some of the most powerful committees are.
218 Republicans, 213 Democrats.
Let’s see, take New York for example.
26 representatives total, 19 Democrat and 7 Republican.
5 of those were within 2 points last time their seat was up.
People who think that New York is blue, their vote doesn’t matter, skips the votes for the House and Senate and end up losing a Blue house seat but later complain that nothing changes are literally the fucking problem.
Every. Fucking. State. Is. Like. This.
Apathetic morons who don’t realize that the president is only held accountable by the other branch of government then wave their hands around when they did jack shit to help put people in place to, are the fucking problem.
District 3 of California was lost by 24,000 votes. District 22 was lost by 3,000.
Those two seats in the house, along with the close ones in New York, Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Washington, hell every state… Are what makes the House of Representatives or breaks it.
So, if you think that your vote for president doesn’t matter, so you skip voting and let these other seats slip, yes, you’re a fucking moron who can’t grasp basic concepts of government that are taught in 4th grade.
And don’t get me started on the State House/Senates, how they define voting laws and voting zones and engage in gerrymandering.
Every fucking vote counts.
And until the country realizes it, and starts acting on it, we’ll keep getting the shit we deserve.
Ok, the private comments arguing that 24k votes don’t matter that’s eeeeuge!
California district 3 has ~780,000 people in it. There are more uninsured people in that district than the loss margin.
The 2.5% of the population which is too young to vote and 4-6% which are ineligible for other reasons still leaves more than enough to have changed that election.
Repeat that across 30-60 other districts across the US and now you have enough to impeach the Cheeto flavored fuckwad.
But apathy and laziness is just too fucking easy.
I voted in the Florida special election for our 1st district rep, knew damned well she’d lose. But here’s the important bit, she didn’t lose as badly as expected. And the other race was a good bit closer than expected.
We can call people like MTG an idiot, but even an idiot can look at an Excel sheet and see slippage. So yes, vote, even for a certain loser. They are paying attention.
If he breaks a law, he can be impeached.
There’s no recall vote.
I don’t think that the level of tariff on China matters all that much anyway once it hits the levels that it’s been raised to. Not many products where someone’s going to just keep paying a 145% tariff (for long, at any rate). Maybe more short-term disruption than otherwise, but outside of that, it’s increasingly just a number.
Of his tariff actions since taking office, I’d guess that this is probably the least concerning. You could argue the specifics, but there was support for at least some tariffs on at least some level of China, and much of the criticism I saw quoted from Republican legislators was that the tariffs needed to be on China, not countries like Canada or the world at large.
While the sentiment is appreciated, that’s not how that works, and also, there’s no fucking way Republicans would get rid of him. He’s cementing their hold on power.